Like every big city, New York is obsessed with the future. And like every big city, it turned its
obsession into a prolific business. A quick
search on Yelp for psychics in NYC returns 24 pages of experts in giving life advice and hints about what
is yet to come. The reviews platform has more than 200 registered professionals in different parts of the city,
with assorted price ranges and adjectives linked to their names—from “spiritual leader” to “old scammer.”
But while many new yorkers search for life-changing answers in tarot cards and hand lines, the stories connected
to these mystical workers remain unveiled. This project used Yelp API to collect information about 5-star-rated
psychic readers in New York City—names, addresses, and business descriptions—to find out the narratives
they use to stand out and explain the origins of their so-called gifts.
To learn more about the methodology, access the project’s repository on GitHub.
In a competitive environment, having the gift of storytelling is key to a successful business. Among promises
of truthfulness and accurate readings, more than half of the psychics used the platform to tell the public
how they acquired their talents. The narrative was attached to gender: only women credited their gifts to family
heritages shared by generations. Their supernatural abilities are mostly inherited or innate—something they were
born with but is disconnected from their family trees. On the other hand, a third of men who shared about
the origin of their power on Yelp said it is tied to life-changing experiences, such as sudden spiritual connections
or the death of loved ones.
All the stories about the source of spirituality and clairvoyance are possibly rooted in social perceptions
and gender roles, as women were historically associated with the part of caretakers and healers, endowed with
sensitiveness and intuition. Over the centuries, these traits served both to confine them to the domestic space,
with the excuse that it was their natural place, and to condemn them as sorceresses, witches, or any other
characters that did not fit the norms established by the patriarchy.
I can read your mind and I know what you're looking for... It's the data for this project, right?
They're available on my GitHub repository.